Between the Poles

Digital logistics management improves labour productivity on construction projects

Digital logistics management is standard practice in manufacturing and is best know for enabling just in time delivery (JIT). Now a company in Scandinavia has applied digital logistics management to construction. Experience in applying this approach to several hundred projects of different types has shown that digital logistics management can significantly reduce labour costs increasing productivity.

Material wastage and lost labour productivity are major causes of delays and budget overruns on large construction projects.  Innovators in the construction industry often look at manufacturing for business processes that could transform construction to a more productive, predictable process.  Prefabrication has been touted as a way of transforming construction but has not been found to be generally applicable to many construction projects. Now another alternative has been developed that successfully applies digital logistics management as used in manufacturing to construction workflows.

Background

Construction productivity in many of the world's advanced economies has been in the doldrums for over 40 years compared to industrial productivity. To improve productivity people have looked to the manufacturing sector for techniques that potentially could be generally applied to the construction industry including digitalization.

Digital logistics management

One of the major problems in construction is managing the delivery and storage of material to the construction site. A common rule of thumb is that as much as 30% of the building materials delivered to a construction site is wasted. Digital logistics management has been used in manufacturing for many years and is best known for enabling for just in time (JIT) delivery of materials, avoiding the costs or storage and materials management on the factory floor. Beginning in 2013 Myloc Construction has been applying these same digital logistics management techniques to construction workflows on over 350 projects in Norway and Sweden.  These projects cover a broad range to project type including hospitals, infrastructure, tunneling, residential, commercial, and industrial projects.  These projects have been normal construction projects with all or the majority of the work occurring on-site. I had the opportunity to speak with Anders Eklund, Business Area manager at Myloc Construction, about how digital logistics management can be applied to improving construction productivity.

For the greatest benefit the digital logistics management approach is adopted by the owner and the implementation of the process begins when the project is initiated, but this is not always possible and on many projects using digital logistics management has been initiated by the project general contractor. The first step is the identification of roles and responsibilities including developer (owner) and construction management, contractors, material suppliers, and logistic services partners.  The objective is to prevent problems in the first place and collaboration between all stakeholders in a  construction project is key to success. 

The objective is the digitalization of all construction supply chains (concrete, HVAC, etc) is to ensure that the required data is being captured from each stakeholder and is accessible to all. Digital logistics management is a data driven process aimed at ensuring that all data is available and accessible digitally and not locked up in documents such as spreadsheets or pdfs.  The result is simplified decision making which enables effective collaboration and minimizes administration overhead at all levels.  The technical implementation of this process relies on distributed processing, but the result is centralized oversight for monitoring, reporting and management..

The overall goal of digital logistics management is a simplified process that ensure that the right material is delivered at the right time with the right labeling with minimal administration overhead. The process also aims at ensuring that the necessary labour skills are available at the right time and at the right place. Saving 5-10 hours of an expert HVAC installer's time contributes directly to improving the bottom line and is fundamental to keeping a project on schedule and on budget. 

To avoid material clogging the construction site and to ensure that material is available just in time (JIT), the digital logistics management process relies on an off-site consolidation centre which allows materials to be delivered by the supplier up to 10 days earlier than it is projected it will be required at the construction site.  The material is then delivered from the consolidation centre to the construction site just in time, typically the night before it is required.

Conclusion

To date this technology has been used commercially in Sweden and Norway for hundreds of construction projects with positive results. Quantitative data supporting this approach was recently provided by an Umea University study of a hospital construction project that found that digital logistics management results in a 19 % reduction in labour time. Furthermore the study found that materials deliveries to the construction site were reduced by an astonishing 45%. This shows that simply optimizing deliveries of materials, a general technology that can be applied to any kind of construction project, can significantly reduce labour costs, increasing productivity. An important side benefit is fewer deliveries which reduces the carbon footprint of the project.

Key registry created in the Netherlands to help model the subsurface

Increasing urbanization throughout the world challenges the sustainable development and resilience of cities. Despite this, the importance of the ground beneath cities is often overlooked.  A lot of information about the underground is captured during excavation and drilling. But this data is typically stored in project or private databases and is not shared. Capturing this data in a shared, open database is a first step toward developing a model of the subsurface that can be reliably used for urban planning, design, construction and maintenance.  The Netherlands has recently embarked on a national program supported by legislation and standards to do just that.

At the preconference workshop “Utilizing subsurface data for urban planning, design, construction and maintenance” organized by Geodan and TNO at the GEO|Design+BIM conference in Amsterdam, Michiel van der Meulen of the COST Sub-Urban program presented an overview of a new program supported by legislation to develop and maintain an open database of information about the subsurface in the Netherlands.

Current data about the subsurface in the Netherlands comes from borehole logs, cone penetration tests, and groundwater measuring points. Most of the currently available information about the subsurface in the Netherlands comes from boreholes drilled typically to over 100 meters using light drilling equipment as well as some boreholes to much greater depths using heavy drilling equipment. This information is available for free through the DINOloket of the TNO, Geological Survey of the Netherlands.

Based on interpolating from the existing borehole data, there are several models of the subsurface in the Netherlands developed by the Geological Survey of the Nethelands. For example, there is a model of the subsurface down to 50 meters. It has a resolution of 100 by 100 by half a meter. It was intended to assist in identifying aquifers and gas fields. This is too course for city planning purposes. What an urban planner needs is much higher resolution and that will require more data.

In 2015 a new law was passed by the States General or parliament in the Netherlands creating a Basisregistratie Ondergrond (BRO) or Key Registry for the Subsurface. The law mandates that if you excavate or drill you have to share your data (relating to soils, geotechnics, and groundwater) with the registry. In addition if when using the data in the registry you find something is incorrect you have to report it. The registry is required to be open and accessible to all citizens of the Netherlands. This new registry will require new standards for recording data and there is a major effort underway in the Netherlands to develop these standards. The implementation of the new subsurface registry will begin in 2018.

The Key Registry for the Subsurface or BRO is intended to provide transparent and accessible information about the subsurface. It is subject to the government's open data policy. In addition to providing data for urban planning, design, construction and maintenance, it is intended to include an inventory of opportunities and risks relating to subsurface, provide data for sustainable water management and to support the governments goal of moving toward a carbon neutral economy at the national regional and local levels. It is also intended to reduce the costs associated with infrastructure management for soil remediation.

The overall goal is to initiate the process of organizing an information chain that will harness geological survey and city efforts in building databases and creating the necessary standards for information production about the subsurface. But to better serve cities with the subsurface information they need, Michiel van der Meulen said that we need to rethink geological mapping, rethink urban information management, and create new alliances among organizations involved in urban development. The new BRO key registry is an important first step in the process of developing models of the subsurface that can be joined seamlessly with above surface information to create the comprehensive digital twins that will be required by the smart cities of the future.

IEA World Energy Outlook projects world warming greater than 2° C based on COP21 committments

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has issued its annual World Energy Outlook 2016.  The IEA has examined several scenarios. All the Paris COP21 climate pledges from 190 countries have been incorporated into its main scenario.  (It does not include any assessment of what the Trump administration may do with respect to the COP21 committments made by the world's second largest emitter.) It has projected that this scenario will actually result in 2.7 °C of warming.  A scenario, called the 450 Scenario, with a 50% probability of limiting global warming to 2 ° C was also examined.

In its main scenario which includes emission reductions from COP21 pledges, the IEA projects a 30% rise in global energy demand to 2040.  In 2040 it is projected that 60% of all new power generation capacity will come from renewables.  In 2040 renewables are projected to represent 37% of all power generation.  By 2040 most renewables-based generation is projected to be competitive without subsidies. Solar PV is expected to see a further 40-70% reduction in cost by 2040 and onshore wind by an additional 10-25%. However, fossil fuel generation continues to be important. Natural gas consumption is projected to rise by 50%.  Growth in coal use essentially stops while growth in nuclearpower is limited to China.

Energy-related CO2 emissions plateaued in 2015 mainly because of a 1.8% improvement in the energy intensity of the global economy.   This is partly because a growing proportion of the $1.8 trillion currently invested in energy annually is directed to renewables.  But the IEA projects that even with the COP21 commitments energy-related emissions will continue to grow by 0.5% per year.

It is projected that a cumulative $44 trillion in investment will be needed in the global energy supply over the next 15 years.  60% of this will go to oil, gas and coal extraction and supply, including power plants using these fuels, and nearly 20% to renewable energies. Another $23 trillion will be required for energy efficiency improvements.   For comparison over the last 15 years, 70% of total energy supply investment went to fossil fuels.   This scenario requires a significant reallocation of capital from fossil fuels to renewables. This is aided by dropping fossil fuel subsidies.  In 2015 the value of fossil-fuel consumption subsidies dropped to $325 billion, down from $500 billion the previous year.

The IEA projects that the COP21 commitments will slow the projected rise in global energy-related CO2 emissions.  However, it does not believe that this is enough to limit warming to less than 2 °C.  The IEA's 450 Scenario, which is based on a 50 % probability of limiting warming to under 2 °C, requires a further major reallocation of investment capital going to the energy sector. A greater proportion of the $40 trillion in cumulative energy supply investment has to move from fossil fuels and towards renewables and other low carbon investments in nuclear and carbon capture and storage so that the share going to fossil fuels would drop to about a third. In addition, $35 trillion is needed for improvements in energy efficiency - that's $12 trillion more compared with the main scenario. The 450 Scenario implies that before the end of this century, the energy sector must become carbon-neutral.  That means all residual emissions from fuel combustion are either captured and stored, or offset by technologies that remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Smart energy for smart cities market to reach $20.9 billion by 2024

Urbanization is a worldwide phenomenon.  According to the World Bank, 54 percent of the world's population lives in urban areas today.  By 2045, the number of people living in cities will increase by 1.5 times to 6 billion, adding 2 billion more urban residents.  With more than 80 percent of global GDP generated in cities, urbanization can accelerate economic development, but it has to be managed in a way that decreases energy intensity (energy per unit of GDP).  

Smart city technology is becoming an essential element in the development of the world's megacities.  For example, the new Indian government's budget includes an allocation for initiating the development of 100 smart cities.  Songdo IDB in Korea and Fujisawa in Japan are two smart cities already under development. China has 36 smart cities in development and a low carbon model city in Tianjin.  Singapore plans to become a smart nation by 2015.  Iskandar is Malaysia's first smart city.  The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) incorporates smart city concepts. 

According to a recent report, the global smart cities market is forecasted to grow from $410 billion in 2014 to $1.1 trillion by 2019 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.5%.  This includes smart homes, intelligent building automation, energy management, smart health, smart education, smart water, smart transportation, smart security, and related services.  Most of this activity is expected to occur in Asia and the Middle East.

Technologies and trends such as smart cities, smart grids, sensor webs, the Internet of Things (IoT), facilities and asset management, indoor and outdoor navigation, energy performance modeling and real-time, “big data” analytics are important for urban planners.  In these technology domains, open standards encourage the sharing of information. The OGC Urban Planning Domain Working Group intends to discover requirements for open spatial standards in information systems involved in the planning, design, use, maintenance and governance of publicly accessible spaces.

According to the IPCC urban areas accounted for 67 – 76 % of energy use and 71 – 76 % of energy-related CO2 emissions in 2006.  Cities are going to have to adopt a leading role in transforming to efficient, non-carbon energy, if we are going to be able to achieve a sustainable level of economic development. 

In preparation for COP21 in Paris, all of the major developing nations have committed to decreases their energy intensity. For example, India has just released its commitments (INDC) to reducing emissions prior to the Paris COP meeting.  The challenge for India is tackling climate change while at the same time improving the standard of living of its third of a billion poor.

According to Navigant worldwide 96 cities that have committed to becoming 100% renewable.  These include Vancouver, Canada and San Francisco, California.  According to the annual ranking by the Global Green Economy Index (GGEI) Vancouver is the world's fourth greenest city.  According to the GGEI the top three greenest cities are Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Stockholm.  The countries corresponding to these cities (Denmark, Netherlands, and Sweden) also rank high, in the top 5 country rankings.  Canada is 12th. The Nordic cities have achieved their high standing with the help of their respective national governments, whereas Vancouver has achieved its high green ranking on its own with little help from the federal government.  Two years ago the Dutch Ministry of the Interior initiated a joint project with the Municipal government of The Hague (Den Haag) to reduce and stabilize energy usage and costs in downtown Den Haag.  The study area is roughly about a square kilometer where the buildings are large and owned for the most part by the National and Municipal governments.

Most of the world's electric power utilities have adopted a smart grid strategy at some level.  This can involve distributed renewable energy (DER), reduced emissions from existing fossil fuel generation and various energy efficiency programs.   Navigant Research has just released a report that investigates the fundamental shift in the way cities manage energy and their relationship with electric power utilities.  It focusses on DER, demand management, EV vehicles and charging infrastructure and energy efficiency.   The major technology suppliers according to Navigant  are ABB, Accenture, AT&T, Cisco Systems, Hitachi, Huawei, Itron, Oracle, S&C Electric Company, SAP, Schneider Electric, Siemens, SSN, and Toshiba.

Navigant Research projects that the global smart energy for smart cities technology market will grow from $7.3 billion in annual revenue in 2015 to $20.9 billion by 2024.  That represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.4%. 

It should be noted that this analysis does not include energy efficient buildings the market for which Navigant has estimated in a separate study to be $307.3 billion in 2014 growing to $623.0 billion in 2023.

Energy efficient building market to grow to $623.0 billion in 2023.

Energy performance modeling for buildings is a new field, but one that is getting a lot of interest under the impetus of government mandates and incentives.  It's so new that there is no set of standard best practices.  Energy modelers are having to make it up as they go.  But this area is growing rapidly, and as government mandates for zero-energy buildings kick in, it is expected to grow exponentially.  A Navigant Research study estimated that the energy efficient building market reached $307.3 billion in 2014 and that it will grow to $623.0 billion in 2023.

According to the 2014 scorecard released by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Germany is #1 out of the 16 nations studied in the World for energy efficiency.  In Germany buildings currently account for 40 percent of power consumption and a third of CO₂ emissions. 

In September 2010 the German Government released a 40 year masterplan for revolutionizing the German energy supply that includes an aggressive plan for energy conservation focusing on reducing the energy demand from buildings.  According to the plan new insulation standards are to be introduced the government wants all buildings in Germany to be refurbished in line with new standards by 2050. It also wants to cut the national heating requirement by 20 percent by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050.  Germany is part of the EU which is very aggressive in improving the energy efficiency of buildings. 

The EU Energy Saving Ordinance mandates a 25 percent reduction in energy use for all new residential and non-residential buildings built from January 1, 2016. And as of 2021, the EU’s nearly zero energy standard will apply to all new buildings.

The EIA has just released information on building energy efficiency programs in China.  Unlike many other countries, the Chinese government has focused a lot of regulatory attention on existing buildings. The overall objective of the Chinese government is to raise the level of existing buildings to satisfy regulations governing new construction. In 2011, the government implemented regulations that mandated a 10% reduction in energy consumption per square meter for commercial buildings by the end of 2015.  It also mandated a 15% reduction for commercial buildings with more than 20,000 square meters of floor area.

Energy certification of buildings is a key policy instrument for reducing the energy consumption and improving the energy performance of new and existing buildings.  In the U.K. since 2008 public buildings over 1,000 m² must display a Display Energy Certificate (DEC).  DECs document the actual energy usage of a building and look similar to the energy labels provided on new cars and electrical appliances.  In the U.S. six cities and two states have passed laws requiring energy benchmarking of existing buildings. It is estimated that these laws will affect 4 billion ft² of floor space in major real estate markets.  In Australia commercial buildings 2000 m² and over are required by the Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Act 2010 to have a Building Energy Efficiency Certificate (BEEC).  In Jakarta a new green building code became mandatory for existing and new buildings in early 2013.  The code covers all large buildings in Jakarta including office buildings, shopping malls and apartment buildings larger than 50,000 square meters; hotels and healthcare facilities larger than 20,000 square meters; and educational facilities larger than 10,000 square meters.

The European Union's SUNSHINE program is intended as a step towards toward standards for measuring the energy performance of buildings and a way to  contribute to improving the energy efficiency of buildings.  SUNSHINE is based on open standards such as CityGML from the OGC. 

In the United States according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), buildings are responsible for 65 % of electricity consumption.  An important motivation for energy efficient buildings in many jurisdictions are aggressive building codes that push energy efficiency.   For example, the 2013 California Green Building Standards Code (Title 24) is one of the first “green” building codes.   Other motivations are customer driven certification such as LEED and other "green" certification - LEED v4 incorporates up to 18 credits for demand response -  and financial incentives from local governments and power utilities to reduce energy consumption, peak load or both.

Government mandates for zero energy buildings (ZEB) have been introduced in E.U., the U.S. and Japan.   According to Navigant Research, global ZEB revenue is expected to grow from $629.3 million in 2014 to $1.4 trillion by 2035.

Energy performance modeling is an essential tool for estimating the energy requirements of a new or existing building.  An energy performance analysis can determine how much energy a building will consume in a year, assess the most cost effective insulation and glazing, and assess other things that can be done as part of the building design to optimize energy usage.  An energy analysis requires data - geometry of the building, performance characteristics of materials, geolocation and orientation of the building, and so on.  Simulation applications include local environmental conditions and involve thermal modeling, daylight and airflow simulations.  Thermal modeling includes energy consumption, thermal comfort, CO₂ emissions, renewable energy integration, and electric power load. Natural lighting includes visual comfort (glare) and the reduction of energy use through natural lighting.  Airflow simulation includes external wind simulation, internal airflow simulation, clean room ventilation, and reduction in electrical load as a result of using natural ventilation.

There are many energy analysis tools available (lighting, thermal, emissions, water usage, etc) , many are very complex, and the volume of data that is required is increasing exponentially.  Many energy modelers follow a best-of-breed approach so interoperablity is a major challenge in improving productivity in energy performance analysis.

Increasingly for energy modelers the natural place to start is with a Building Information Model (BIM).  There are several reasons for this.  First of all it is what many of the energy performance analysis packages expect and it is supported by the gbXML standard.  Secondly it allows all the information required by the architect, engineers and construction contractors to be accessed in one place.  And thirdly it helps in communicating the results of the energy performance analysis to the people who need it including heating and cooling, lighting and other types of engineers, all  of whom may require the same  information but communicated in different ways.

PG&E's distributed substation design solution wins Be Inspired Award at YII2015

Smart substations are an essential component of the next generation of the electric power grid.  But for many utilities they have become a severe bottleneck because of limited substation design resources.  Enabling external contractors to participate efficiently in substation design is becoming an important strategy for alleviating this problem.  After a year in which Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) had failed to complete 60% of its substation design projects, PG&E embarked on an innovative project to enable external contractors to participate efficiently in the substation design process.  This achievement won this year's Be Inspired Award for Innovation in Utilities at the Year in Infrastructure 2015 conference in London.

PG&Es Substation Engineering Services had deployed a new substation design system that integrated electric and physical design to approximately 80 internal design employees.  The new system halved the average time required per drawing from 24 to 12 hours.  This resulted in efficiency gains of about $ 5 million in savings per year on contracted projects. 

But  PG&E found that it still had a substation design backlog.  PG&E's strategy for accelerating substation design relied on the expanded use of external contractors to augment its stretched internal resources.  However, as its use of external contractors grew, PG&E found that efficiency decreased because the overhead associated with external resources was very high compared to internal resources.  PG&E's solution was to develop a distributed engineering design system that allowed engineers anywhere in the world to collaborate efficiently on substation design.  PG&E’s distributed substation design environment reduced the average time required per drawing for external contractors by a third, making external contractors nearly as efficient as internal designers.  Altogether the distributed engineering design system saved $7.3 million in costs annually.  Also since less travel was required, a side effect of the project was a reduced carbon footprint.

China and Germany lead the world in building energy efficiency

According to the 2014 scorecard released by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Germany is #1 out of the 16 nations studied in the World for energy efficiency.  In Germany buildings currently account for 40 percent of power consumption and a third of CO₂ emissions. 

Energy efficiency of buildings

In September 2010 the German Government released a 40 year masterplan for revolutionizing the German energy supply that includes an aggressive plan for energy conservation focusing on reducing the energy demand from buildings.  According to the plan new insulation standards are to be introduced the government wants all buildings in Germany to be refurbished in line with new standards by 2050. It also wants to cut the national heating requirement by 20 percent by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050.  Germany is part of the EU which is very aggressive in improving the energy efficiency of buildings.  The EU Energy Saving Ordinance mandates a 25 percent reduction in energy use for all new residential and non-residential buildings built from January 1, 2016. And as of 2021, the EU’s nearly zero energy standard will apply to all new buildings.

According to the ACEEE scorecard Germany is ahead of most countries in implementing energy conservation policies and measures for buildings.  (The IEA provides a listing of German energy conservation policies and measures.) But Germany came in second to China in the ACEEE assessment of its progress in improving the energy efficiency of buildings.  The ACEEE assessement focussed on several criteria for building efficiency including energy intensity in residential buildings, energy intensity in commercial buildings, residential building codes, commercial buildings codes, building labeling, appliance and equipment labeling, and building retrofit policy.

The EIA has just released information on building energy efficiency programs in China.  Unlike many other countries, the Chinese government has focused a lot of regulatory attention on existing buildings. The overall objective of the Chinese government is to raise the level of existing buildings to satisfy regulations governing new construction. In 2011, the government implemented regulations that mandated a 10% reduction in energy consumption per square meter for commercial buildings by the end of 2015.  It also mandated a 15% reduction for commercial buildings with more than 20,000 square meters of floor area.

The Green Building Action Plan of 2013 mandates that more than 400 million square feet in residential homes in the northern heating zone must be refurbished to meet new construction standards by the end of 2015. (According to the World Bank 46% of residential floor area is in “severe cold” or “cold” regions.) In addition all commercial buildings in the same zone must be renovated to meet the standards by 2020.

Energy labeling

In 2006 China started a green building labeling initiative called Three-Star Rating Building System.  This system required buildings to be assigned a rating of one to three stars using several criteria.  These include land usage, energy and water consumption, material efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and operational management. The Three-Star Rating Building System departs from the LEED standard in assigning categories based not only on a building's design but also on the building's performance over one year of operation.

Appliance and equipment labeling

China began an energy efficiency labeling program in 1998 with a voluntary energy efficiency labeling program. Then in 2005, a mandatory energy information label was introduced that assigned appliances to categories based on their energy efficiency.  This program is similar to the European Union categorical energy label. 

Green building codes

In 1986 China issued the first building energy code in 1986 for residential buildings in the northern heating zone. These regulations mandated a 30% reduction in space heating energy consumption compared with 1980 reference buildings. For each of China's four climate zones (severe cold or cold climate, hot summer/cold winter, and hot summer/warm winter), there are three energy codes for residential buildings.   There is one code for commercial buildings. Regulations are mandatory except in rural area where residential energy codes are voluntary.

Even with these regulations, from 1998 to 2012 energy consumption of buildings in China grew by about 7.7% per year.  This is ascribed to rapid economic development and the rapid rise in personal incomes in China during this period allowing people to acquire and use more appliances.  In addition China's buildings are inefficient compared to developed countries.  It is estimated that buildings in China use 2-3x more energy per square meter for heating than buildings in comparable temperature zones in Europe or the US.  Furthermore thermal comfort is significantly lower in China.

Greening the Delhi Metro System

The Delhi Metrorail Corporation (DMRC) has signed an agreement with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) that will make it possible to incorporate the unique needs of metro installations and mass rapid transit systems for new metro stations and depots within the LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) green building rating system. India is one of the USGBC's top five countries for LEED.

This summer two of Delhi Metro's new stations were awarded the platinum (highest) rating for adherence to green building norms of the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC).  IGBC's Green Mass Rapid Transit System rating is the world's first exclusive rating system to address sustainability in new municipal rail systems.  The IGBC rating system enables new rail based municipal rapid transit systems (MRTS) to apply green concepts during design and construction to reduce environmental impact.  The rating system ranks stations and depots and on a scale of platinum, gold, and silver depending on their adherence to IGBC specifications.  All 90 new metro stations which will be completed by 2016 as part of Delhi Metro's Phase 3 are green buildings.  In addition five new solar power facilities have been installed by Delhi Metro at different stations, depots and residential enclaves.

The Delhi Metro is a remarkable achievement in other respects in addition to green.  The Government of India and the Government of Delhi jointly set up the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in 1995.  The DMRC is a special purpose organization with great autonomy and powers. The DMRC has full powers to hire people, decide on tenders and control funds.  The initial phase of the $2.3 billion project wrapped up in December, 2005, on budget and nearly three years ahead of schedule.  According to Business Week "A well-run subway is a marvel even in a first-world city. In India, where public works are often models of dysfunction, it's nothing short of a miracle."  One reason was that DMRC relied on private funding from the Japan Bank of International Cooperation and other international organizations.

How Vancouver became the world's fourth greenest city

According to the annual ranking by the Global Green Economy Index (GGEI) Vancouver is the world's fourth greenest city.  The most recent GGEI analysis covers 60 countries and 70 cities. It tracks how investors rank the appeal of cities and countries as markets for green investment and it provides a global measure of performance in key efficiency sectors, including buildings, transport, tourism and energy.  It also integrates environment & natural capital measuring perceptions and performance in environmental areas like air quality, water, forests and agriculture.  According to the GGEI the top three greenest cities are Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Stockholm.  The countries corresponding to these cities (Denmark, Netherlands, and Sweden) also rank high, in the top 5 country rankings.  Canada is 12th. The Nordic cities have achieved their high standing with the help of their respective national governments, whereas Vancouver has achieved its high green ranking on its own with little help from the federal government.

How did Vancouver do this ?

I have blogged on several occasions about geospatial developments at the City of Vancouver.  Vanmap, which is the City's geospatial portal, was an early development that has supported a number of the City's green initiatives.  Vancouver was one of the first cities that made its geospatial and other data open and free.

Yesterday at Ottawa's City Hall,  Andrea Reimer, Vancouver's Deputy Mayor, described in a fascinating presentation how Vancouver achieved its high GGEI ranking and its plans to rise even higher to become the world's greenest city by 2020.  In addition the City has recently committed to running 100% on renewable energy by 2035. This means only green energy sources for electricity, heating and cooling and transportation.

This all started about a decade ago, when a public consultation about greening the city attracted an incredible 2300 people.  The enthusiastic response was unexpected.  It cost participants ten dollars and the organizers were expecting something on the order of a few hundred people.  It turned out that they had to change the venue twice to accommodate everyone.  The mega response clearly showed a tremendous interest in green by Vancouver's citizens.  From this beginning Vancouver's greenest city initiative has continued to be a grass roots movement supported by the City government.

The City started off with some quick start projects which had high visibility and were inexpensive.  These included separated bicycle lanes, provision for organic waste (food scraps), a deconstruction bylaw, drinking water stations, community gardens, urban commercial farms, green buildings, city power utility that generated electricity by burning sewage and waste, commercial car sharing, and an urban forest initiative. 

The City developed the Greenest City Action Plan (GCAP) which focussed on 10 goal areas addressing three overarching areas of focus; zero carbon, zero waste and healthy ecosystems. The 10 goal areas were arrived at by a process of public consultation.

The Greenest City Action Plan includes commitments to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions, both from City operations and the community; generate 100 per cent of electricity from renewable resources; and implement the greenest building codes in North America. This commitment has helped stimulated the local green economy.  5% of all jobs in Vancouver are green and Vancouver is among the top 10 green technology clusters.  World-leading companies such as Westport Inovations (advanced natural gas engine-maker), General Fusion (nuclear fusion), Ballard Power Systems (hydrogen fuel cells) and Saltworks Technologies (waste water remediation) are based in Vancouver.  In Vancouver's case economic development and greening the city have gone hand in hand.

The results of the greenest city initiative to date are impressive; for example, 8% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, 18% reduction in waste going to landfills or incinerators, 18% reduction in water use per capita, 19% increase in jobs in the green sector, 30% increase in food assets, and 10% increase in trips by bicycle, on foot or using public transit.

Vancouver's greenest city initiative is an amazing story with concrete measurable achievements.  As David Chernushenko, Ottawa City councilman,  said in his comments after Andrea's presentation, there is no reason from a technology perspective that other cities such as Ottawa cannot follow in Vancouver's footsteps  with their own solutions reflecting their unique environment.  But the key ingredient that enabled Vancouver's green revolution is broad public participation, which Vancouver had right from the beginning.

Changing the world's energy economy: Elon Musk announces Tesla Energy

At the beginning of May Elon Musk gave a presentation is which he offered his vision of an alternative to fossil fuels as the future of humanity's energy sourcing and delivery.  Musk's long term objective is global carbon free energy for power generation and transportation.  He announced Tesla Energy and its first products, lithium-based Powerwall consumer (10 kWh) and Powerpack utility-scale (100 kWh) batteries.  He also discussed a third product, GigaFactory, which he described as a gigantic machine to manufacture Powerwall and Powerpack batteries. 

Elon Musk is an entrepreneur with a vision for humanity.  He is the chairman of SolarCity and his vision for practical carbon-free energy helped start the company.  SolarCity has already had significant transformative impact on the traditional power utility business model.  He is also the founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, a manufacturer of electric vehicles and batteries. (He is also CEO of Space-X, but that's another discussion.)  Musk is proposing a fundamental transformation of how the world works, by developing an alternative model for how energy is sourced and delivered.  He believes it is possible with solar and batteries to wean the world off fossil fuels and reduce  anthropogenic CO₂ emissions to near-zero.

The Problem

The world's electric power and transportation is powered by burning fossil fuels. The result is that anthropogenic CO₂ emissions have pushed atmospheric CO2 concentrations (first recorded by climate scientist Charles Keeling) to levels not seen even in the paleoclimate record.

The Solution

Musk thinks that collectively we should do something about this, but is has to be practical (and not win the Darwin award). His proposal for a solution has two parts.

1. Solar
Musk pointed out that we have this "handy fusion reactor in the sky" in the sun.  We don't have to do anything except harvest the energy.  Musk calculated the total surface area needed to generate enough power to get the U.S. completely off fossil fuel power generation.   Shown as a blue square on Musk's slide it covers less than 1/4 of  the Texas panhandle.

2. Batteries
The obvious problem with solar energy is that the sun does not shine at night and even during the day the the power generated varies.  Energy captured from the sun needs to be stored.  Battery technology has evolved to the point where the size of the batteries needed to wean the U.S. power generation off fossil fuels is the size of a pixel ("the red pixel") on Musk's slide.

In Musk's view what is needed is a battery that simply works.  A battery that doesn't require a lot of space, is reliable, works with existing home electrical networks and solar installations, is safe, can be used for years and is affordable. The Tesla Energy consumer battery, the Powerwall, is wall-mounted and comes in different colours so you don't need a battery room.  It stores either 7 kWh (priced at $3000) or 10 kWh ($3500) and can be stacked for up to 90 kWh.  To put this in context the average Ontario homeowner uses about 800 kWh a month in energy which translates to an average of 27 kWh a day.  The Powerwall comes with a 10 year warranty.

What it gives you is peace of mind. You don't have to worry about being without power after an ice storm.  It also gives consumers energy independence.  Together with solar panels with these batteries consumers can go completely off the grid.  This presents a huge challenge to the traditional electric power utility business model, comparable to the impact of cell phones on traditional land-line telephone companies.

Powerwall is targetted for homes and small commercial sites.  You can order the Powerwall right now on the Tesla web site.  Musk said that shipping will start in 3 to 4 months.  Initially the rampup will be slow because the batteries will be made in Tesla's Freemont, California factory.  But next year the rampup will accelerate as Tesla transitions to its Nevada Gigafactory.

Tesla is not the only company producing this type of battery.  Aquion Energy and Iron Edison are also also producing consumer-scale power batteries.  You can see how Tesla's Powerwall and these other companies' products compare from a financial perspective here.

Powering remote locations

Battery power is even more crucial for people in remote locations where there is no grid (remote parts of India and Africa), electricity is intermittent (many urban areas in India), or extremely expensive (northern Canada).  Musk thinks that the Tesla Powerwall can scale globally.  What he expects to see is what happened with cell phones and landlines.  The cellphone leapfrogged the landline.  There wasn't any longer a need to put landlines in remote locations. People on islands or remote locations can install solar panels and Tesla Powerwalls and never have to worry about electicity lines.

Utility-scale battery storage

The Tesla Powerpack (100 kWh), which is designed to scale infinitely, can provides gigawatt power.  According to Musk Tesla Energy is already working with a utility on a 250 mWh Powerpack installation. 

Emphasizing that the Powerpack is a reality, Musk announced that the entire evening event had been powered by Powerpack batteries that had been charged by the solar panels on the roof of the building where the event was taking place.  The entire evening was powered by stored sunlight.

Tesla's competitors in this market include Eos Aurora and Imergy Flow.  You can see how Tesla's Powerpack and other companies' products compare financially here.

The big picture: transitioning the world to sustainable energy

Musk calculated that 900 million Powerpacks would be required to transition the world to renewable electric power (90,000 GWh).  To transition the world to renewable electric power and electric powered transportation would require 2 billion Powerpacks.

Musk made the case that this is something that humanity is capable of by looking at what humanity has already done with transportation.  There are about 2 billion cars and trucks on the road.  About 100 million cars and trucks are produced every year so that the world's transport fleet gets refreshed every 20 years.  Musk's argumemnt is that if we can do it with vehicles, it is within our power to do it with batteries.

This is the reason that Tesla's approach in developing the Gigafactory is to treat it as a product. They are designing a giant machine for making batteries.  Musk foresees that there needs to be many gigafactories in the future. He emphasized that this is not something that Tesla is going to do alone.  Many other companies need to develop their own gigafactories. 

Musk also announced that Tesla's policy of open sourcing patents will continue for gigafactories, Powerwalls, Powerpacks, and other technologies.Musk foresees with this technology a future where the Keeling curve will flatten and where there will be no incremental anthropogenic CO2 increase.  The path that he has described based on solar panels and  batteries is the only path that he knows can achieve this.  In his view  it is something that we must do, that we can do, and that we will do.  I have to agree with Ed Parsons.  This is on the level of Steve Jobs revolutionizing consumer electronics and commercial music delivery, but working on the "slightly bigger challenges" of carbon-free transportation and power generation.